The Identity of the Literary Translator

OF LITERARY THE TRANSLATOR

88054:

The identity

Literary

Dr Sarah Maitland

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“Of course things are lost in translation, of course a translation is not the same as the original, but that does not mean that someone reading that translation will always be short-changed. A good translation takes the reader in to the world of the (translated) book in the same way that a writer took his or her readers into the original book in the first instance. There is loss in translation, but there is also gain, and this elementary fact seems so often to be forgotten. What is also forgotten is that for a translator, the act of translating is probably the most thorough of all ways of reading a text.” (2011: 118)

“As translations can never be the same as the original, they cannot ever be so faithful that nothing changes in the transfer process; it is simply not possible to do this. Languages are different. The skilful translator therefore finds ways of reshaping the source for a new set of readers. That is what the job of translating is.” (2011: 41)

OF LITERARY THE TRANSLATOR

88054:

The identity

Literary